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My Flower Bed Planting Process

This recent garden transformation has been a multi-stage process. This has been my process so far:

1. Weed flower bed. Repeatedly.
2. Mix rich homemade compost into flower bed soil and aerate the soil, mixing the compost in well. I also brought in some earthworms so they would start making themselves at home in our soil.
3. Transplanted my existing perennials that I planted at our old rental house (I think the landlord was sad that I didn’t leave them behind, but I am quite attached to all my flowers!).
4. Pruned all dead growth that was currently in garden from previous owners, and trim all the hedges. They were quite unruly. I also deadheaded the rose bushes where needed. Unfortunately it appears that someone may have pruned them too hard previously, so they are a little slow at catching up this year.
5. Start fertilizing the grass and watering regularly.
6. I had a huge task of removing months of pine needles from the four huge trees. Pine needles can be good mulch for certain plants, but not for most. There were so many on the grass that it was a little overwhelming. I think that removing them and trying to keep up with raking them off on a regular basis has helped everything a lot.
7. Once the grass actually started growing, I realized I had a huge weed problem on my hands. I found a handy tool that made much easier work of removing all of the weeds in the lawn. I am still not finished with all of the areas yet, and will do a blog post on this handy tool soon!
8. Fertilize the existing (neglected and near dead) grape vines growing on the fence.
9. Started shopping for new plants! I love an informal country cottage garden look, so I went with a mix of colors: pinks, purples, yellow, orange, white, silvery grays, with a touch of blue. I selected a mix of annuals, perennials, and a few bulbs.

I tried to select the bulk of my planting with perennials, with a few of my favorite annuals thrown in for some quick color (mostly snapdraggons, poppies and cosmos). I also selected some drought tolerant plants that I have seen growing natively in our local hiking trails.

I made sure I planted the appropriate types of plants for each area in our garden. It varies from full sun, to part sun, to part shade, to full shade. It was quite a challenge to find appropriate plants for each area!
10. Fertilized all the new flowers. We wouldn’t look very good on a diet of only water, and neither do plants! I use a dry organic fertilizer, and alternate with a liquid seaweed supplement.
11. Once all the new plantings were set up, I added some of my favorite annual and perennial seeds, as well as a wildflower mix in the empty spaces. I love a very full garden with continuous color, so I am hoping that staggering the growth like this will help give me a garden that continues to amaze me (and the neighbors!).
12. Next we reinforced the falling over fence (actually my dad and my husband did this part). We were originally planning to replace the fence since it is obviously falling apart, but once I was able to get some life out of the grape vines, we decided to postpone that project until they are dormant. For now the fence is supported so the grapes don’t make the whole thing collapse.
13. Next up will be finishing my project of freeing the fruit trees in the corner from where the grape vines were smothering them. I have them mostly freed, but they need a little more work.
14. The last item on the to-do list will be adding mulch. I am waiting until my seedlings are big enough, which for now means very regular weeding. It is important to know what is a weed and what is a seedling though!

To keep everything looking nice, I try to go out every morning (or every other morning), and do a quick round with the clippers and compost bucket to check for any flowers that need to be deadheaded or any petals that have fallen. I also am trying to get in a regular habit of raking/blowing/sweeping/vacuuming up all of the pine needles. It is a huge job!